Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the
Father.
If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins] (1Jn 1:9)
You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with God the
Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.
God
is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth. (Joh 4:24)
Emotional Revolt
of the Soul
THE
VOCABULARY PROBLEM
The heart is more
deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to
give to each man according to his ways, [Thoughts]
According to the results of his deeds.
[Actions] (Jer
17:9-10)
The emotional
revolt of the soul centers around two words found in this passage, the “heart” and the “mind.” Although they are literal organs in the body, they
generally do not refer to the physical organs when they are used in the Bible.
Since there is no vocabulary word in either the Hebrew or the Koine Greek for
certain functions of the soul, such as the “emotions,” words of anatomy which
have parallel functions in the soul have been substituted. The words translated
“belly,” “bowels” and “reins” refer to the emotions, thoughts
and or mind of the soul, “Heart” is
usually the designation for the “right
lobe” of the mentality and or human
spirit of the soul. Let’s take a look, then, at the soul.
THE SOUL
The soul has
essence, which is composed of six characteristics. First of all, it has
self-consciousness, (The element that makes you aware of your own existence)
faith, mentality, volition, emotion and conscience. The soul also has mentality contained in two
frontal lobes. The left lobe, translated “mind”
from the Greek word “nous” is the
perceptive lobe. This is a staging area from which, for believers — God's Thinking is transferred
to the human spirit and then to the right lobe.
The right lobe is
the dominant lobe and is designated by two different words in the Greek: “kardia’’ (Heart) and “noema.” (Understanding and or Thought) It is the
area referred to in, (Pro 23:7) which
says, “For as he [A person] thinks in his
heart, [Right lobe] so is he.” “Heart”
in the Hebrew refers to the Divinely designated authority of the soul — the heart or right lobe of the mentality of the
soul. (The sin nature controls the soul or the Holy Spirit through our human spirit)
The right lobe,
(Spiritual brain for believers) has seven areas: a frame of reference, memory
center, vocabulary storage, categorical storage, conscience, momentum, and
wisdom.
Our soul has a viewpoint — human or God's; or a mix of both —
this is also where you keep memories about people — all kinds of people. It is
the place where you store your attitude toward country, toward life, toward
your job, etc. When you began to think, you began to develop norms and
Standards. You have norms and Standards about what is right and wrong, what
things are proper, and so on. Some of your norms and Standards may be
compatible with God’s and some may not. Truth
provides us with information whereby you can develop God's norms and Standards.
The viewpoint is
a combination of what you have in your frame of reference plus your norms and
Standards. (Conscience) You have a viewpoint about everything in life art,
music, sports, country, God, church, to name a few. Your viewpoint determines
your attitude toward life and your capacity for life. The
believer’s Divine Viewpoint must have Truth to launch into the soul and into
experiences in life. Finally, technical, Theological categories are
identified by means of the vocabulary.
Another
characteristic of the soul is volition. This means that you are capable of
making decisions, and you are responsible for these. The soul also has
emotions. We will be examining the emotions in our study of the “mind and or reins.” Every soul, since
the fall of Adam, has an old sin nature, or Adamic nature, designated in
Scripture by the terms “flesh” in, (Rom 8:3-4) and “old self” in, (Eph 4:22) The sin nature has an area of weakness which produces
personal sins, an area of strength which produces human morality and sentiment,
a lust pattern, and trends toward asceticism and lasciviousness. It is the
distorter of the soul.
THE
DECEITFUL HEART
Our study begins
with that part of the soul called the “heart”
or right lobe. In, (Jer 17:9) we are
introduced to the “deceitful heart” “The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Since the word “deceitful” is
an adjective, the first phrase should have been translated “the deceitful heart.” What is a deceitful heart? “Deceitful” here denotes some kind of phony, pseudo-thinking
— an action that is antagonistic toward God.
To understand the
deceitful heart, we need to understand that technically all the facets of the
soul are linked and interrelated by a very intricate “wiring” system. There is wiring that goes from the human spirit to the
right lobe, which takes care of Spiritual Thinking; wiring also extends from the old sin nature to the right
lobe. When the old sin nature thinks sin and or
sins — it goes from the sin nature through the
wiring into the right lobe.
If you are
thinking about a person or a situation from your frame of reference when these
mental attitude sins come in, you will immediately regard that person with
mental attitude sins.
A “deceitful heart” is the right lobe of
the mentality filled up with mental attitude sins from the old sin nature. The
mental attitude sins travel in the soul — from the sin nature to the right
lobe. The
deceitful factor is that mental attitude sins completely deceive you in your
relationship with God. You are kidding
yourself if you think that you have fellowship with God when you are involved
in mental attitude sins. (Isa 55:7)
The worst sinning in the world never gets outside the soul, though obviously
the repercussions do. You can be jealous and bitter and go in for revenge.
Revenge becomes overt when you malign or gossip or try to hurt; but the mental
attitude sin itself doesn’t leave the soul — apart
from rebound, of course.
The heart is said to be “more
deceitful than ANYTHING else!” In other words, the sin nature full of mental attitude sins
is more desperately sick and deceitful than anything else in our life! (Jer 17:9) So, when the old
sin nature cycles mental attitude sins into your right lobe, if there is no Truth there to meet the situation, you
couldn’t be worse off Spiritually: we are
dangerously sick in our soul!
Now, “who can know [Understand] it?” Anyone who is functioning under Operation Z, and who has a
frame of reference filled with God's Thinking —
is in fellowship, and filled with God the Holy Spirit can Spiritually
Understand it. (1Co 2:15-16) But
the next verse is going to give some amplification.
THE HEART
SEARCHED
“I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the
mind...” (Jer
17:10) These two verbs, “search”
and “test” are actually participles
in the Hebrew text, and denote continuous action. In
this case, there is never a time when
God isn’t constantly searching the thinking
— if it is
human false realities; or God's Reality;
Thinking as He Thinks — in order to provide maximum companionship and blessing.
(Job 7:17-18) The primary meaning of “search” means “to explore.” God is an Explorer.
In eternity past God explored every right lobe; therefore, He knew how each one
would operate. Because He is the Explorer of your
soul; He provided Salvation for your soul through the work of Jesus Christ on
the cross! (2Th 2:13)
Note that the exploration site is said to be the
“heart.” This means that God is
exploring the Thinking of your right lobe in three areas: first, the frame of
reference with its memory center; is being explored to see whether you have
God's frame of reference. Second, God explores your conscience to determine
whether your norms and standards are compatible with His absolute norms and
Standards. Third, your viewpoint is searched. Does your right lobe contain the necessary Divine Thinking
that will give you a Divine Viewpoint about EVERYTHING in life? (Joh 16:13)
How do you fill your right lobe with God's
Thinking and Reality? That is the whole subject of Operation Z. But briefly,
Truth is communicated by a pastor-teacher through, isagogical, categorical,
exegetical teaching, (ICE) it then enters the left (Perceptive) lobe as a
staging area. From there it must be transferred BY FAITH to the human spirit.
It is then cycled into the seven areas of the right lobe. With a Maximum amount of “tested” Truth and time
filled with God the Holy Spirit — your heart
is not only non-deceitful, but it WILL BE
BLAMELESS. (Act 24:16; Eph 1:4; Php 2:15;
2Pe 3:14)
Paul had to learn
Truth and build an edification complex, (ECS; Temple) in his soul before he
could communicate Truth. The more Truth he knew, the more he was able to teach.
Thus his right lobe was enlarged or increased with knowledge of Truth. Our
right lobes are increased in the same way, and the result is Spiritual maturity
through an ECS!
God
blesses on the basis of grace, and MAXIMUM grace blessing comes to the believer
with MAXIMUM Spiritual Thinking in the right lobe. So the Lord is continually exploring the content
of your right lobe to see how much grace blessing He can give you. (Isa 30:18) In addition, Truth in the right lobe gives both capacity
for temporal life as well as for Spiritual life; capacity to enjoy pleasurable
things and social activities, capacity to cope with danger, temptation,
pressures, prosperity and adversity in fact, capacity for EVERYTHING in life!
THE REINS OR
MIND
“Test the mind.” “The word “test” here means “to test for
function.” The Lord is constantly testing the “reins = thoughts.” First of all, what are the “reins?” The Hebrew word is “kiljah”
(Pronounced “keel-ya”) and is translated reins in the KJV. This word in the
Hebrew is in the feminine gender, and anything that is feminine is designed to
be a responder. So, as we shall see, the thoughts
and emotions have been designed to be responders of the soul.
Most dictionaries
and lexicons will define ‘reins’ as
the “kidneys.” But the word “kiljah” means more than just the
kidneys. Every normal person has two kidneys, and on top of each kidney is an
adrenal gland. Adrenal glands secrete at least two hormones, one of which is
adrenalin. This is an emotional hormone, used to stimulate you for “fright, fight and
flight.” The whole system is protected by a fat pad, which surrounds the
kidneys and the adrenals. So “kiljah”
actually refers to the fat pad; but by analogy it refers to the emotions. There
is a very close relationship between the physiological functions of the glands
in the fat pads and the emotions of the soul.
The heart, as the
dominant lobe in the mentality of the soul, is analogous to the man; while the
emotions, as the responder and appreciator of the soul, are comparable to the
woman. For this reason they are linked together in certain passages. (Psa 7:9; Psa 26:2;
Jer 11:20; Jer
17:10; Jer 20:12) Just as a
man initiates love to his wife and she responds to his initiation, so the right
lobe initiates to the emotions. The question is, do
the emotions respond, or do they dictate and nag
the right lobe? This question must constantly be answered to determine
our capacity for the Spiritual life.
CAPACITY FOR
LIFE
Potentially, the
believer has the greatest capacity for life; but experientially, he can wind up
in the worst possible shape. You need not possess a lot of money to enjoy life;
but you do need capacity! Although God will assign
to you a certain amount of materialistic things, a right amount of time,
prosperity, testing, adversity, or whatever it might be, these all must be
based on your capacity to enjoy them.
True capacity for both temporal and Spiritual life results
when the right lobe dominates the soul and the emotions respond. Emotion has no Divine Thinking or knowledge of its own.
It depends on the knowledge or Truth of the right
lobe; or lack of
it. Therefore, emotion takes on the
character of the thing to which it responds. If emotion responds to Truth in
the right lobe, it has great capacity for life under the happiness spectrum
from tranquility to ecstatics. If, however, emotion
responds to the old sin nature, it will produce the misery spectrum of
frustration, self-induced misery, lust, revolt, loss of freedom, scar tissue,
sublimation, etc.
Notice that the
word “mind”
is in the plural. (Thoughts) Either the heart is
filled with God's Thoughts and His REALITY; or
Satan's thoughts and one of his many, many, MANY REALITIES! Through response to God, Truth and Christian music, the
right lobe, gives the believer capacity for the Spiritual life. When there is Truth
in the heart so that you have a Divine frame of reference, when the norms and
standards are compatible with Divine norms and Standards, when the viewpoint
lines up with God's Viewpoint, then you have capacity for life. Capacity for
life based on Truth; (God's Thinking) this will insure a full
and wonderful life. Every facet of your life, whether Spiritual or temporal, will
be interesting and fascinating — even phenomenal!
The response
of the emotions to Truth is illustrated in, (Psa
16:7). “I will bless the Lord [A response of
Personal love toward God] who has counseled me, [God's Thoughts learned
through ICE] my
Thoughts also instruct me in the night.” When
you have taken in Truth under normal conditions
— when in
times of pressure God the Holy Spirit brings them to the memory center; and the emotion responds to what you have learned, then
you are able to have capacity for life in ANY and EVERY circumstance!
This capacity is described in, (Psa 16:8) “I have set the
Lord continually before me; [By staying in fellowship] Because
He is at my right hand, [Occupation with Christ] I will not be shaken...” [Or quit Thinking with His
Word] (2Pe 1:10)
Now, this is the
optimum, the way things SHOULD work. But let’s see how things go wrong and how
the system gets out of balance.
THE
EMOTIONAL REVOLT
When we
sin and get out of fellowship and quit Thinking with God's Reality, (Singular = ONLY ONE) the old sin nature sends out its mental attitude sins and
realities, (Plural = MANY) then the emotion takes those false thoughts and starts to
dictate to the right lobe. What we have then, is: EMOTIONAL REVOLT IN THE SOUL.
This is a “deceitful heart”; THAT IS “desperately sick”! (Jer 17:9) We are ALL
born in this condition; and have to change
our minds! (Rom 3:10-12; Rom 6:17-18; Rom
12:2)
God's
Thinking should dominate the soul; but when the emotions revolt and start to dominate, the entire
system is thrown out of kilter. For example, the heart should initiate Viewpoints such as,
patriotism, Laws of establishment and Divine institutions; but when the emotions are dictating, you have cowardice,
draft-dodging, socialism and even revolution. God's
Thoughts should initiate Virtue-love; but when
the emotions revolt, then jealousy, lust, fear, worry, bitterness and
implacability come into play.
The heart with Truth in the frame of reference initiates
to the emotions and they respond with appreciation for Truth, for who and what
Christ IS, for what God has given us; but when
the emotions revolt and become the initiators, people get into the tongues
movement, the “new age” movement, legalism, and many other Weird activities
where the emphasis is on how you FEEL rather than on Thinking with Truth. This
is emotional revolt of the soul!
The more apostate Christianity becomes, the more emphasis
there is on emotional activities — the emotions dictating to the right lobe. As a result we
have people singing “Just as I am, was or hope to be” around a campfire,
dedicating and rededicating, trying to get “the rosy glow” through some
emotional experience. God wants us to get the
greatest thing in the world; capacity for life, death, adversity, prosperity,
love and happiness; but that capacity comes from Truth, not from the emotions!
THE MIND AND
FEAR
When an
individual is under great pressure, the stimulation of the emotion, which is related
physiologically to the adrenal glands, comes into action. Often in desperate
situations you are able to accomplish phenomenal things. However, if under pressure you operate on your emotions, you will fight, run away, or give up! God has provided Truth so that you can
have stability in EVERY situation, including great pressure. Now, Truth is
contained in the Bible, but to be usable, it has to be transferred into your
right lobe.
When
the old sin nature gets hold of the emotions, the mental attitude sins of fear,
worry, lust, criticism, anxiety, guilt feelings, etc., move through the
emotional pattern. In other words, mental attitude sins
start in the old sin nature, but they go through the emotional pattern and end
up in the right lobe. When this happens, the true function of our emotions is
reversed: the emotions revolt in the soul and begin to
dictate to the right lobe! They become a bossy female instead of a
responsive woman. Soul breathings become impossible:
you can’t inhale Truth or exhale Divine Thinking. As a result, capacity and or appreciation for Spiritual and
temporal life is destroyed.
THE
HINDRANCE TO CAPACITY FOR LIFE
The
mental attitude sins from the old sin nature hinder the capacity for life as
well as for love. This Principle is found in, (Pro 23:15-17).
My son, if your heart is wise, My own
heart also will be glad; And My inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak
what is right. (Pro
23:15-16)
A wise heart
refers to Truth in the frame of reference; Truth forming the basis of the
conscience — the new norms and Standards.
Truth forming the basis of Divine Viewpoint; Truth on the launching pad into
the soul and into experiences in and of life. Now
notice Who rejoiced, “God” So when Divine Thinking is in the right lobe this
finds a response and favor with God! If we get a
little up-tight or a little short, then thoughts and emotions backfire.
Do you see the
Principle? If you start in the right lobe, and you
have inner happiness because of Truth, you are going to have inner happiness in
your emotions! Of course, the old sin nature,
which is the source of temptation — might start a rumble; and whenever a mental attitude sin
walks in, the trouble begins! We have a warning in: (Pro 23:17). “Do
not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the LORD ALWAYS.” [STAY IN FELLOWSHIP BY REJECTING MENTAL ATTITUE SINS!]
All of a sudden,
mental attitude sin jealousy enters the emotions. If mental attitude sins are
not handled promptly through, (1Jn 1:9) they multiply and get worse, so that eventually you get
hallucination in the heart, and that is the “deceitful
heart,” or the “desperately sick
heart.” The old sin nature says, “Say, emotion, don’t you get tired of being kicked around by Truth in
the soul? Don’t you get tired of being a responder all the time? Arise and
revolt!” So up from the old sin
nature comes jealousy; and once jealousy is established in the emotions, it is
a mental attitude sin. Of course, it is true of any
mental attitude sin. The emotion then revolts and you start wide
emotional swings. You become frustrated and miserable, and in the extreme,
neurotic or psychotic. You have a nagging emotion or a
sick soul!
Finally, the
backup of mental attitude sins causes the emotions to dominate the right lobe; thus a beast or a
monster is created in the soul!
When my heart was embittered And I was
pierced within, Then I was senseless and ignorant; [Of Divine Thinking] I was
like a beast before You. (Psa 73:21-22)
This person’s
right lobe was grieved — he fell apart under pressure; his emotions were
punctured — he had wide emotional swings. Therefore, he was foolish and
ignorant and like an animal. “Then I was”
indicates that he was a believer. So, meet the believer-monster, the
believer-animal! The believer-animal has reversed the whole procedure. When the
emotion rules the soul, it shuts down the right lobe and no Truth comes
through. This is why we have legalism and human moral
degeneracy; this is why we have draft-dodgers, liberals and traitors; and this
is why some of the people most useful to the devil in the angelic conflict; are
believers out of fellowship; the result: liberal Theology, socialism, social
action, new age, and the tongues movement!
For this reason,
Divine discipline is Biblically related to the emotions of the soul.
He has turned aside my ways and torn me to
pieces; He has made me desolate. He bent His bow And set me as a target for the
arrow. He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts. (Lam 3:11-13)
All these phrases are pictures of discipline.
“He has filled me with bitterness, He has
made me drunk with wormwood.”
He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. My soul
has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, “My strength has perished, And so has my
hope from the LORD.” Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood
and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. (Lam 3:15-20)
As a result, he
is filled with mental attitude sin bitterness. Here is a mental attitude sin
going from the sin nature to the mind to the right lobe! Once the emotion revolts and becomes the aggressor, it loses
all capacity for life and substitutes the misery spectrum for the happiness
spectrum!
Interestingly
enough, clinical psychology has described the characteristics of emotional
revolt and reversionism, which are closely related, as the “psychopathic
personality. In her book, “Psychopathic Personality and Neuroses,” Dr. A. A.
Terruwe has the following comments, which you will recognize as symptomatic of
both emotional revolt and reversionism.
Psychopathic personality
is a disease of the EMOTIONAL LIFE. The normal mature person controls his emotional life by the
intellect. In this way the emotional life blends perfectly with the
intellectual life. In the psychopathic person, the
normal subordination of the emotions to intellect is not present.
…It is deficient
and in some cases completely lacking. …It is the emotion that takes over at the
expense of the intellect. Even in neurosis, the same mechanism seems to be the
causative factor . . . that is to say that it is the
emotions that control the intellect rather than the intellect controlling the
emotions.
THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY:
1. Imbalance
2. Instability
3. Egocentricity
The key
defect is lack of regulation of the emotional life by the intellect. The action of this regulating factor is diminished or
abolished in the psychopathic personality. As a result, the relationship
between stimulation and reaction lose all proportion.
The
psychopath lacks the ability to evaluate realistically the OBJECT of their
emotional reactions. This drive towards a
false object becomes so intense that REASON no longer can govern their actions.
They lose all objectivity and all intellectual reasoning abilities as they
pursue the false object, and or themselves with PSEUDO-LOVE fanaticism. This
imbalance leads to marked INSTABILITY of their emotions. The “normal person’s” emotional
life is controlled by the intellectual life, and this in turn leads to a
certain degree of stability.
The
psychopathic person in pursuit of his false object by purely emotional
“non-thinking” can change from a love response to unreasonable hatred. This is why the psychopath is
unpredictable ...and can never be trusted! You can
never depend on him. The psychopath with his incapacity for true love becomes
preoccupied with self-gratification. This egocentricity is typical of most
psychopaths. The true psychopath relates
everything to himself! (How he wants it to be)
True love and friendship are unknown to the psychopath.
When they love, it’s for their own sake, and the
friendship lasts only so long as it is to their advantage. A psychopath at times can be exceedingly religious and in
fact some psychopaths claim to reach a level of false Spirituality that gives
them supernatural powers, and many become totally involved in mystical
existence. Their false Spiritual life is
determined by what they desire instead of what God desires. ... Disorientation to time, and disorganized delusions.…
THE
SHORT-CIRCUIT OF OPERATION Z
The
most important things in life are the ability to concentrate and the ability to
express in your Spiritual Thinking and vocabulary the Concepts of God's
Reality! These
come inevitably by a daily intake of the Word of God, and this must be based on
the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in our life. (Joh 4:23-24) Thus the
importance of rebound can never be minimized. It is the means of being filled
with the Spirit, of checking the emotional revolt in the soul, and of following
through in the function of Operation Z. While the
emotion of the believer who is positive toward the Word appreciates Truth and
matures thereby, the emotion of the carnal and
or negative to application believer; hinders the learning of Truth.
Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O
Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you
are restrained in your own affections. [Old sin nature] (2Co 6:11-12)
The open mouth
was the communication of Truth, first from the greatest of all Bible teachers,
the Apostle Paul, then from that eloquent speaker, Apollos, then from Timothy,
and later on from Titus. Four great Bible teachers! All of them taught the Corinthians.
All of them taught on the basis of personal study. Yet the Corinthians failed
to learn Truth. Why?
Your Bibles say, “You are not restrained by us, but you are
restrained in your own affections.” Paul is saying, “Ye are not LIMITED by us; [Paul, Apollos, Timothy or Titus] you are limited by your own EMOTIONAL PATTERN!” Remember, emotion has no
content; it does not produce character; it cannot hold Truth or capacity for
love. Emotion cannot, in fact, hold anything; it is merely a responder. So when the emotions revolt and take over the dictatorship of
the right lobe, Truth is shut off in the right lobe. It cannot get into
the frame of reference, the norms and standards, or the viewpoint; and since there is no Truth in the emotions, they get out of
line. They initiate to the right
lobe. In other words, since there is no stability
in the right lobe, all we can do is emote and get ecstatic, lustful, fearful,
hateful, etc. Emotion becomes the standard
rather than the Word of God!
That is why the
Corinthians were suckers for the “tongues movement,” which necessitated the
long dissertation on tongues in (1Co 12:1)
thru (1Co 14:40) These people were in
emotional revolt so that they could not take in Truth. Truth
is built upon Truth through the function of Operation Z: Truth goes into the
left or perceptive lobe; then it is transferred by faith to the human spirit
where it becomes Spiritual Understanding; then it cycles up to the right lobe
to fulfill its various functions for application.
Emotion can respond to Truth, but it cannot learn it or build
Truth on Truth.
The emotional
revolution against the establishment of the soul, then, short-circuits
Operation Z and causes the malfunction or total failure of the grace apparatus
for learning. This is what happened to Judah. (Jer
17:11) says, “… and in the end
he will be a fool”; or literally, “and
their end shall be NABAL, “desperately foolish.” “Desperately foolish” is
the emotional revolt which upsets the balance of the soul’s function. “Desperately foolish” means that Truth
is cut off from the heart; “foolish”
is the influence from the old sin nature. Since the emotions have no Doctrinal
Thinking, when Truth from the right lobe is not controlling them, they are “foolish” and when they respond to the sin nature,
and the sin nature fires up mental attitude sins, lust and human moral
degeneracy, the emotions are “desperately
sick.”
A nation which goes out under the fifth cycle of discipline
has become desperately sick that is, its people have become totally negative to
Bible Thinking and therefore totally degenerate. God wipes them out to
keep the disease from spreading to other nations. Every time there is a great
disaster to a nation in history, and a large segment of the population is wiped
out, you can write that nation off as desperately sick! God has to preserve the
human race. You are here today with some degree of sanity because God keeps
wiping out the desperately sick.
SEPARATION
FROM EMOTIONAL REVOLT
The failure of
Operation Z, because of emotional revolt in the soul, frustrates God’s grace in
the life of the believer; and makes God’s plan impossible to fulfill. This is
why Christians can and do become psychotic. For this reason, believers are
commanded to separate from other believers involved in emotional revolt of the
soul.
Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on
those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the
teaching [Thoughts] which you learned,
and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of
their own appetites; [Old
sin nature's emotional pattern] and by their smooth and flattering
speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. (Rom 16:17-18)
“Now I urge you” is actually a Command.
Believers “brethren” are Commanded to
make a reconnaissance to observe them which cause divisions and to beware of
them. Why? Because they are in opposition to Truth, and therefore, they cause
stumbling, ruin and misery “hindrances”
They are troublemakers! They are not serving the Lord Jesus Christ but their
own bellies — EMOTIONS —
OLD SIN NATURE; they are in emotional revolt! They are serving their
emotions, and there is nothing in the emotions.
Of course, they
can still put out some good words: “by
‘smooth’ words and ‘flattering’ speeches, they deceive the hearts of the stupid
and unsuspecting” — those ignorant of Truth and
therefore lacking in discernment. They do the
same thing to you that has happened to them. They get you to go into an
emotional revolt, which cuts off the right lobe.
Believers who
live by their emotions are believers whose emotional revolt has produced chaos
of the soul. The emotion is no longer a responder but an aggressor. Believers with chaos of the soul are troublemakers. And believers who have learned Truth are Commanded to
separate from them.
THE OLD SIN
NATURE; A PARAMOUR
In effect, emotional revolt is tantamount to the emotions
fornicating with the old sin nature; they are unfaithful. The old sin
nature is a paramour which turns the emotion from a responder into an aggressor
or a tyrant and upsets the soul. If your wife becomes a fornicator, (Physically
and or Spiritually — mentally unfaithful) and you try to go back to her, you
are, as the saying goes, “beating a dead horse.” Just so, the old sin nature
was the culprit that caused you to be born Spiritually dead. Therefore, to respond to the sin nature is to go back to
something that is DEAD AND DECEITFUL!
The emotional
revolt is always the result of the old sin nature reacting in one of three
areas: the area of weakness, which produces mental attitude sins; the lust
pattern; or the area of strength, which produces human moral degeneracy. The emotions, which were DESIGNED to respond to the right
lobe only, can, however, respond either to Truth
or they can respond to jealousy, pride, bitterness, vindictiveness and or
implacability. They
can respond either to the norms and Standards of the right lobe, or to approbation lust, power lust, materialism lust and or
sex lust. The emotions can respond either to
the Divine Viewpoint of the right lobe or to the
old sin nature.
Backed by the old sin nature, the emotions are the motivators
of human sin nature moral self-righteousness, the motivation of the lust
pattern and mental attitude sins. Emotion was
never designed to be a leader! But once it
revolts against the heart and becomes an aggressor, it comes under the
influence of the old sin nature, and it loses all capacity for life.
CAPACITY FOR
GRACE
God's Thoughts in the right lobe determines appreciation and capacity
for God’s grace in the emotions of the soul.
A Psalm of David. Vindicate
me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, [Spiritual maturity] And I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. (Rom 4:20) Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.
For Your loving-kindness is before my eyes, [In fellowship] And I have walked in
Your Truth. [Thoughts] I do not sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with
pretenders. I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the
wicked. [Separation] I shall wash my hands in innocence, [Rebound when necessary; 1Jn 1:9) And I will go about Your altar, (Heb 13:10) O LORD, That I may
proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving And declare all Your wonders. (Psa 73:28) O LORD, I love
the habitation of Your house And the place where Your glory dwells. [The Temple in us] (Psa
26:1-8)
He was not
telling God something God didn’t know; he was setting up the Principle for us. There was no legalism or self-righteousness; he was ready
for death; and therefore the TRUE SPIRITUAL LIFE! Why? He had TRUTH in a PURIFIED HEART, and Truth in the
heart causes response in the emotions.
David could
therefore say with confidence, “Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my
heart.
For Your
loving-kindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your Truth.” (Psa 26:3) Do you
know what “loving-kindness” is? It is grace supplied grace in action; MAXIMUM FREINDSHIP
WITH GOD! “For your grace in
action is before mine eyes.” Why? “Because,
[Literally] I have walked in Your Truth [THOUGHTS].” Truth is
the only way you can respond to God’s love!
God found a way in eternity past to bless us, without our
getting our legalistic self-righteous oar into it! And Truth comes through a whole grace structure. The very
fact that we have God's Thinking to Think with; is GRACE! The very fact that there are communicators of His Thoughts;
is GRACE! The response to Truth; is GRACE.
The means of getting Truth at the right place at the right time and the
capacity for life; is GRACE!
Further, Truth gives the capacity for love, and capacity
for love produces boldness! Some of you ladies are timid souls; some of
you are considered to be very quiet; but when you have the capacity to love
someone, you can be as bold as the brassiest woman who ever lived! David has
that type of boldness with the Lord. But be careful — don’t start saying, “Now,
look. Lord, I’m ready for all that grace; “because if you’re not purified in
heart, (The Spiritually mature life) you’re going to get lightning! (Tested and
or disciplined)
When you function daily under Operation Z, a
grace operation, the result is maximum Divine Thinking in our right lobe. With a maximum amount of Truth in the frame of
reference, the Holy Spirit can instantly bring into the memory center Doctrinal
Thoughts which are used to give you a COMPATIBILITY with God as a part of Category
One Personal love for God. God has PERFECT THOUGHTS. Truth in your frame of
reference sets up the PERFECT THOUGHTS which are consistent with His! (Isa 55:8-9;
Joh 12:49-50; Joh 14:21;
Joh 14:23; Joh 14:24-26) The result is our Viewpoint becomes Divine Viewpoint. Therefore, when you function daily under
Operation Z, and as a result you have maximum Truth in the right lobe, you then
possess maximum emotional response and great capacity for responding to God’s
love. More than
that, when you have maximum Truth in the soul, God possesses your emotional
responses; and by possessing your emotional responses, He gives you in grace
the most fantastic capacity for life:
But now I come to You; and these things
[Thoughts] I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in
themselves. (Joh
17:13)
THE TRAGEDY
OF EMOTIONAL REVOLT IN LEADERSHIP
The book of
Jeremiah contains many instances of the emotional revolt of the soul. The
fortieth chapter begins the background of a widespread emotional revolt, which
finally led to complete reversionism among the remnant of Judah. During the
first Chaldean invasion, In (Jer 39:1-18)
the army had dispersed: some escaped to Edom, Moab and Ammon; others hid out in
the mountains after escaping from Jerusalem with Zedekiah, the king. When
Zedekiah and his family were captured, most of the generals escaped with the
remnants of their commands. Some of these generals were un-Principled, without
a sense of responsibility, and considered their own personal safety rather than
the protection of the population of Jerusalem. These, notably Ishmael, would
later return to precipitate a civil war among the remnant at Mizpah.
Word had gotten around that the remnant was enjoying
prosperity under Gedaliah, (Jer 40:7-8)
whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed as governor of the Chaldean buffer state. (Jer 41:2) Prosperity always attracts scavengers
and parasites who want to get their hands in the cookie jar. (Jer 40:11-12) For sixty days after the
destruction of Jerusalem, the remnant in Mizpah, where Gedaliah had set up his
headquarters — enjoyed a period of great happiness and tranquility, and the
realization of the Divine Principles of establishment which contribute to the
stability of a nation. Gedaliah had been taking in the Word of God under the
ministry of Jeremiah. Jeremiah himself was in the palace.
However, there is a danger, particularly in prosperity, of entering a
mild emotional revolt. Of the three categories
of emotional revolt Category One, a mental attitude sin motivation, Category
Two, a lust motivation, and Category
Three, a self-righteous motivation, the latter is most apt to occur during a
period of happiness and prosperity.
It is very easy to fall into a trap known as
“sentimental love” or “Sentiment: A personal belief or judgment that is not
founded on proof or certainty; Tender, romantic, or nostalgic feeling or
emotion.”
If
anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and
children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My
disciple. (Luk 14:26)
I am not
talking about “agape” Impersonal love
— the relaxed mental attitude which we are Commanded toward SELF AND ALL
PEOPLE; I am talking about the subtle
pseudo-love-system, which is a sentimental personal love for friends and
family; used as a substitute for Spiritual Virtue and Truth. (Mar 8:31-38)
We are going to
see that Gedaliah fell into this trap; he became
extremely naive, and all the Truth he had been taught went for nothing!
As a result, there would be a civil war, which would eventuate in a general
emotional revolt among the people. The original Mizpah crowd were believers who
had establishment Principles or who were in the process of building them. The
Jews who were returning were apostate fugitives. In the ensuing civil war, the
“establishment Principles” crowd became the “establishment party,” while the
fugitive crowd became the “revolutionary party”
Ominous clouds
were gathering on the horizon. The first of these clouds is evident in, (Jer 40:9-10) as we begin to observe that
Gedaliah had “sentimental” tendencies. He made a
solemn promise in verse 9 to people who were apostate, who came to cut his
throat, and who planned to rob, plunder and enslave the remnant:
Then Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son
of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, Do not be afraid of serving
the Chaldeans; stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, that it may go
well with you. (Jer
40:9)
Nothing that
Gedaliah said at this point was non-Biblical, but he
was naive about the type of people whom he was welcoming into the fold.
He stated the Chaldean policy, a conciliatory policy, which if abided by, would
guarantee their safety. The reason for this policy toward the believing remnant
was that Jeremiah had been so faithful in his communication of Truth that many
of the hierarchy of the Chaldean military had become believers in Jesus Christ.
Through Truth, the Jewish remnant had understood that the Chaldeans were the
instruments the Lord had chosen to administer the fifth cycle of discipline to
Judah, and these Jews were loathe to fight against them. The Chaldeans,
impressed with their attitude, had reacted favorably toward them.
Foolishly,
Gedaliah revealed his own plans to the revolutionists in, (Jer 40:10) which would leave them free and
undisturbed to make their reconnaissance throughout the land. He wisely took a
stand, however, to be a loyal servant of the Chaldeans, for he understood that
this was God’s will. He then told the conspirators, whom he failed to recognize
as wolves in sheep’s clothing, not to fight the Chaldeans but to settle down to
farming. The very fact that Gedaliah accepted them was the first sign of a
breakdown of his own Spiritual discernment.
The establishment
crowd were positive to Truth and were continuing under Jeremiah’s ministry. The
apostate crowd were negative toward Truth and were infiltrating. This was a time when separation was
necessary but would not be forthcoming. Remember
that the source of prosperity at this time was Truth — Truth that was translated into the lives and souls of the
remnant of believers who remained in the land.
But Gedaliah was a weak leader who definitely had an emotional blind spot about
a seemingly beautiful set of circumstances. His
emotions were listened to rather than his Spiritual Thinking. Without
taking into consideration the consequences of the Spiritual compromise
involved, he thought that all these people would be a great help in the land. Yet they merely wanted to skim off the cream; they wanted the
prosperity but not the Truth! (Joh 2:24-25;
Joh 6:15-27) Inevitably, then, there
would be conflict — unless Gedaliah as governor had the courage to suppress
violence.
Who would have
thought that during such a happiness interlude, during the time of glorious
prosperity, war clouds were on the horizon? That most of these people would
soon either be corpses or slaves? Yet that was exactly
what was going to happen!
This leads to a
very pertinent question for us to consider: Why are so many people unable to
apply Truth in certain areas, even though they may learn the Word everyday? The more a believer advances, the greater is his potential
of falling flat on his face because of blind spots. Every advance in
Truth has an increased area for blind spots. Therefore,
it is imperative to keep APPLICATION up with intake. We often fail to realize how many times each day God gives
us the opportunity to apply some facet of Truth; we need to ask God IMMEDIATELY
what are You attempting to teach me! When we
fail to do so, we become naive in certain areas; and if those areas happen to occur in a period when carnality and or
apostasy has infiltrated, we will come under the anathema of: (Jer 17:5-6)
Thus says the LORD, Cursed is the man who
trusts in mankind [Anyone or thing, for our happiness]
And makes flesh [The old sin nature] his
strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD. For he will be like a bush
in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes,
[Of Salvation and or to reach Spiritual maturity]
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without
inhabitant. (Jer 17:5-6)
Jeremiah had taught this, but Gedaliah never
understood it. As a result, we are going to see Gedaliah trusting a monster who
will murder him, and calling his dear friend, Johanan, a liar. How could Gedaliah be so deceived? Ishmael was sweet and
personable; Johanan was a plain, blunt and rough soldier. We all become blinded at some time or other by sweetness. We mistakenly assume that sweetness, kindness and generosity
is Spirituality; and that bluntness is carnality. (Gal 4:16) When we make this mistake, we create an area of naiveté;
which is incompatible with the Spiritual life or with the Divine Viewpoint.
There was one
general in Biblical history who passed this test; one hundred percent, and that
was David. During one of his campaigns, his canteen became empty, and he
expressed a tremendous thirst. Some of his troops risked their lives to bring
him water. David then did what seemed to be a very strange thing — he poured
the water on the ground. This was a sign of Spiritual maturity — an ECS! When he
saw how much these men loved him, he knew he could not order them into
dangerous assignments which would mean their deaths if he drank that water, and
thus he would become unfair as a field commander. He
would have been weakened in Spiritual courage and would have catered to the
ones who brought him the water. Therefore, he could not take the water
without blinding his eyes; so he poured it out to the LORD. (2Sa 23:14-17)
Gedaliah, on the other hand, had this malady which comes to all of us
sooner or later — a mild
attack of emotional revolt from human sentiment — pseudo-love. Even a mild
attack can so blind the mind that true Divine Thoughts are destroyed.
Thus a potentially great leader was turned into a mediocre leader. By his own misguided — sentimental — sincere — “brotherly kindness,” he was actually responsible for the
deaths and the temporary enslavement of many of the establishment crowd!
He was also responsible for the deaths of seventy out of eighty pilgrims who
came down from the north. It is very difficult to be a leader in a time of
apostasy. Decisions have to be made objectively and
on the basis of the Word of God — let the chips fall where
they may! Gedaliah wasn’t up to it;
David was!
THE WARNING
OF THE CONSPIRACY
How many times
are we as believers warned about something? It is imperative that those in
leadership listen to and weigh carefully certain warnings. At one time David
was about to slay a drunken bum named Nabal, (His name means fool; 1Sa 25:25) who owed him a great sum of money. (1Sa 25:1-42) David was angry — in Category One
emotional revolt, mental attitude sin — and was going to take it out on Nabal’s
hide. A beautiful woman with Divine Thinking; (1Sa 25:3) stopped David in his
tracks! (1Sa 25:23-33) When he
dismounted, she gave him excellent advice, which he took. Again, here was a
Spiritually mature man. He weighed the advice, made a
decision on the basis of Truth, and refrained from murder.
By contrast,
Gedaliah failed to take good advice. Johanan was military advisor to Gedaliah.
He was honest and blunt and a good soldier. His
weakness was that he didn’t know how to follow through with the Spiritual life.
It takes the military establishment to win freedom, but victory must be
followed up with Truth. Johanan, in, (Jer 40:14)
came to Gedaliah in great concern to warn him of a plot against his life. “Baalis, the Ammonite king,” said
Johanan, “is behind this conspiracy.” It was the objective of Baalis to reap
through plunder the benefits of the prosperity of Truth. The establishment
crowd had done a great job in taking over industry, and the economic recovery
of the land was phenomenal.
Now the plot was
to be carried out by Ishmael, who was one of the generals of the army who had
fled the Chaldeans. Josephus tells us that Ishmael had found refuge in the
court of Baalis, and Baalis had found in Ishmael a willing accomplice to his
plot to destroy Gedaliah’s government and plunder the country. Both Baalis and
Ishmael were brilliant men. The difference between the two was that Ishmael was
in emotional revolt because of mental attitude sins — he was jealous of
Gedaliah — while Baalis wanted to rob Judah, but had no ax to grind. He was not
jealous of Gedaliah or the remnant. A person who is smart but full of mental
attitude sins often becomes the dupe of someone who has less intelligence but
no personal emotional revolt.
Ishmael knew how
to capitalize on Gedaliah’s naiveté. No doubt he had already sent word back to
Ammon that his job would be easy. He had found that
Gedaliah was a sucker for sentiment and brotherly love. In effect, Gedaliah had
implied that their Doctrinal differences were not important — “Let’s just love each other; let’s be one big, happy family.
You are all welcome to come to my palace at any time.
And Ishmael, I want you especially to come and eat with me!” Ishmael
assured him that he would. Gedaliah was the antithesis of Ishmael, and he was
therefore no match for Ishmael.
Gedaliah was a man in whom there was no guile. (Psa 32:2) His
honesty and forthrightness in responding to Jeremiah’s ministry and staying in
the Chaldean party revealed his own character. However, Gedaliah made the mistake of assuming — that
everyone was like himself open and aboveboard. Those
who are guileless find it difficult to detect or to believe guile in others.
It never occurred to Gedaliah that Jews would return to the land for any except
the highest motives of patriotism. The only protection that Gedaliah had was in
Truth — particularly Jeremiah’s famous message in: (Jer
17:5) “Cursed
is the man who trusts in mankind...” — because
they all have old sin natures! (Joh 2:24-25)
Furthermore, the happiness interlude had deceived
Gedaliah into watering down Truth.
Gedaliah was the kind of person who went to Bible class when the
pressure was on; when the heat was off,
Gedaliah took off! Everything
was fine now and he didn’t need Truth. Invariably when a person gets away from Truth,
he will go into some form of sentimentality compatible with his emotional
revolt! Emotion is controlling the soul; and
since emotion has no character, no Truth, no common sense or discernment, it is
inevitable that such a person will begin to trust and love everyone. This is not true love, but an emotional activity of the
soul.
Gedaliah fell
into that trap, and so he could not believe that the Jews who returned would
have evil motives. Leadership demands discernment, which Gedaliah did not
possess. If he would protect himself as well as
those he is leading, a leader must begin
by assuming that no one can be trusted; (Mic 7:5-6; Mat 10:34-39) —
which demands knowledge of the Doctrine of sin and
the sin nature. (Do not overrun people; not
be overrun by them!) Gedaliah’s naiveté will
result in his own tragic death and civil war in the land.
Now there was
still some common sense in the land. An excellent solution was offered in, (Jer 40:15) by Johanan, his friend. He would
simply kill Ishmael before Ishmael killed Gedaliah! Here is the Principle of
maintaining government or establishment. It takes
violence to stop violence. This is also a DIVINE Principle of law — the
Principle of capital punishment. (Gen 9:6;
Rom 13:4) Capital punishment puts teeth
in the law. Johanan gave a very good reason for suggesting that he slay
Ishmael. He had discovered the conspiracy and was well aware that if
successful, it would cause the destruction of the remnant!
Unhappily,
Gedaliah would not believe Johanan and refused to let him carry out the
suggestion. (Jer 40:16) Furthermore,
Gedaliah accused Johanan of the worst kind of lying. Thus
his blindness was complete and his leadership neutralized!
THE
ASSASSINATION OF GEDALIAH
In the seventh month Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and one of the chief
officers of the king, along with ten men, came to Mizpah to Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam. While they were eating bread together
there in Mizpah, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him
arose and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the
sword and put to death the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the
land. Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with him, that is with
Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of
war. (Jer 41:1-3)
Ishmael, the
leader of the conspiracy, was the cousin of Zedekiah and therefore of the royal
seed. Since Zedekiah had been blinded and taken to Chaldea, Ishmael considered
himself to be the true king of Judah. He was guilty of
power and approbation lust and was jealous of Gedaliah — two areas of
emotional revolt of the soul. Ishmael had taken up the invitation of Gedaliah
to be his guest for dinner. Ten men came with him. They were hand-picked.
Ishmael had a whole army; but there is one thing a conspirator would never do
and that is to show up with the entire army and frighten the intended victims
so that they are put on guard.
Although they
were outnumbered, (The Chaldean garrison was close by, as were the palace
guards) the revolutionists had a carefully laid plan, and would have the
advantage of surprise. Theirs would be a sneak attack, such as we had at Pearl
Harbor. Since the laws of hospitality in the ancient world forbade violence,
this would be the ideal time for their treachery.
Note
that Gedaliah has been so overcome by the prosperity of the land that his
emotions have undergone a reverse process. He has been so stimulated by the happiness interlude that he
incorrectly thinks everyone is wonderful.
Prosperity has caused his emotion to be stimulated,
but not by Truth! This false stimulation has cut
off Truth in the right lobe; and while Gedaliah had Truth, he could not apply
Truth in this situation. He is in very serious trouble!
This is what has happened to Christianity today even in
fundamental circles. While still giving it lip service, they have actually
departed from Thinking with God's Thoughts; and are using their own. (Isa 65:2) They are still acknowledging the Bible as the Word
of God; but when you bring up the importance of THE WORD, (Joh 1:1) they always come up with something,
that to them is more important… It is more important to
love everyone; hang out with friends and family, it’s more important to work in
the church, or to get out and knock on doors or to help the helpless. They even
go so far as to say that if you emphasize God's Word, you don’t have Christian
love! Truth is being attacked in one way or
another. It no longer has its proper place. (FIRST
PLACE!) (Psa 138:2; Rev 2:4)
Ultimately this leads to complete apostasy, as is evidenced by
“churchianity” today! As is much of our academic
training. A Principle that we need to recognize is that once a national entity
permits violent ones to run through the country without restraint, these can
never be stopped short of greater violence! Johanan is the one who would
exercise the greater violence to stop the violence of the revolutionary party
in Mizpah.
The
revolutionary party, which began with a Category One preoccupation with self — emotional revolt in the leader, Ishmael, now has the objective of
overthrowing the establishment and taking over the fruits of prosperity for
themselves. They have
added a Category Two preoccupation with others — emotional revolt — power lust and
covetousness, and are, of course, in reversionism. But in destroying the Divinely appointed establishment,
which contains the Divine Laws, they will neutralize the very basis of the
prosperity!
The first action
of the revolutionists begins in, (Jer 41:2)
and the action is violence. Revolutionists always seek
to gain their objectives by deceit and or violence — by the destruction of life, prosperity and property, by
intrusion on the privacy of others, and by intimidation through physical power.
The violence which destroys revolution and preserves freedom must be a
part of the Divine institution, the establishment, and it must be enforced by a
trained group of killers i.e., the MILITARY! Military is a bona fide function.
Generally speaking, military types are the most Law abiding group in the land.
They learn how to live with others, to respect the rights of the individual,
and yet to function with others as a team. So the military, both directly and
indirectly, plays a great part in the function and maintenance of freedom, as
well as in the economic success of life.
If Gedaliah in
his position as governor of the land, had exercised his authority, he would
have put the conspirators on trial before they ever went so far as revolution.
He would either have executed them or expelled them from the land, and the
happiness and prosperity interlude would have continued. But he went soft, and in the name of brotherly love and
sentimentality; this opened the door for the takeover of the revolutionists.
As a
result, the establishment is going to be wiped out quickly. The conspirators
are well organized and well prepared. THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING! The victims don’t know what’s going
on! Lack of awareness of a conspiracy means a
failure of preventive or defensive action when the time comes. We in this country are neither prepared nor conditioned
mentally to meet our enemies. Our enemies comprise the whole Communist world.
We are taking the soft attitude when we ought to be tough. What will it take for the United States to come out of its
ANTI-GOD AND HIS THINKING lethargy?
The only way we
will ever be mentally conditioned is to have another tragedy such as that at
Pearl Harbor. But that is the wrong way to face national catastrophe. Why
should those men have died at Pearl? Every man who died there, is a monument to
the stupidity of this country. Those men were, in effect, murdered by our
leadership and by those Americans who were so anti-military that a year before
the Pearl Harbor attack, the military was still training with wooden guns!
Leadership must recognize the dangers and warnings, face the issues and prepare
the people. We entered World War II on an emotional kick. But that isn’t the
way to preserve freedom!
The account of
the assassination of Gedaliah and the Jews who were with him indicates that, in
effect, Gedaliah and the whole establishment party had brought about their own
downfall by lack of awareness of the conspiracy and failure to have Johanan and
the military in readiness. Emotional revolt in the soul destroys both
discernment and alertness. Gedaliah represented authority; and the elimination
of that authority precipitated a civil war. That is the subject of the rest of,
(Jer 41:1-18).
The establishment
under Johanan eventually won the civil war, but as has happened in our country,
they lost the peace. Human freedom is perpetuated by TRUTH! The Mizpah group
came out of the war in Category One emotional revolt — shock and fear — and did
not continue with Truth. They went negative to the Word of God as communicated
by Jeremiah Chapters, (Jer 42:1) thru (Jer 43:1-13). And even though God had promised
deliverance and protection from Chaldean reprisals, they fled to Egypt. Thus the establishment which won the war destroyed itself.
They went into reversionism and died the sin unto death. (Jer 44:1-30)
THE DIVINE
SOLUTION
Now,
how is it possible for a believer with Spiritual adulthood to revert to total
apostasy? The answer
for the Jews of Judah lay in the fact that they failed to pass the prosperity
test; during the happiness interlude which followed the fall of Jerusalem.
During this period, the Jews were so intrigued with their prosperity that they
forgot its source — GOD AND WHAT HE THINKS WITH — HIS WORD! TRUTH! (Joh 8:31-32) They were like believers who come to Bible class during
adversity but quit in time of prosperity! The
enjoyment of prosperity turns them negative toward Truth; (Jer 22:21) then begins
the accumulation of scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. This, in turn, triggers an emotional revolt of the soul and
quickly goes into reversionism. (A subject that is dealt with in another
book) In emotional revolt, application of Truth is
impossible, and human viewpoint solutions prevent Divine Viewpoint Thinking.
It is tragic that this nation has lost track of the Biblical
Principles whereby we can maintain our freedom. But because we have, we
are going to come to that very place to which the establishment group finally
came to in, (Jer 44:27-28). Our country
began very much like the remnant under Gedaliah — as
a nation under God. There were very few people in the entire population
of the thirteen colonies who were not either believers, Theists or Deists —
three groups who recognize the existence of God. Atheism and agnosticism
represented a very small portion of our population.
In our brief
history we have been blessed in a magnificent way by God. Part of God’s
blessing is direct and part is indirect. Direct blessing belongs to the
believer only. It starts at salvation, and is based on grace, which is God’s
plan by which we enter Divine blessing through faith in Jesus Christ.
For by grace you have been saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves, [Salvation] it is the gift of God; not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8-9)
Indirect
blessing, which comes through the Divine Laws, is for believer and unbeliever
alike. The fact that we are still a nation under God enjoying some measure of
freedom, is God’s indirect blessing from which all the people are benefiting,
not just believers. In many cases, this freedom is neither understood nor
properly used. Whenever apostasy, liberalism and
potential revolution exists, liberty is always abused.
In effect, we
have in our country today the same things which existed in the happiness
interlude in Judah under Gedaliah. We have Truth available, the Divine Concepts
of freedom and the fantastic prosperity that comes from the operation of
certain Divine Laws, such as, the Divine institutions, the military, (Neh 4:14) objective-type Law, (Exod 20:1-7) compatible with Divine Institution
# 4, (Gen 10:32) Law enforcement and
capital punishment. (Gen 9:6; Rom 13:1-8) These Principles are the reason that
the “wicked” (Unbelievers and carnal
believers) often prosper. (Psa 73:12; Jer 12:1)
God does not change His essence or His Word because He
sees some unbelievers and carnal believers following the right Principles of
the economy! Yet, in these days of apostasy,
the very existence of this country depends on those who have Truth — and Think with God's
Word! They are the salt of the earth — the preservers of a nation!
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the
salt has become tasteless, [Through emotional revolt]
how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be
thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” (Condemned
by ALL; God, Satan, believers and unbelievers; no one likes a quitter!)
(Mat 5:13)
As
never before in the history of our nation — do we need Spiritually
mature believers, stabilized by an edification complex in the soul. We must steer clear of the pitfalls of the emotional revolt
of the soul. Our souls must function as God intended,
according to the Divine design: the emotions responding to Truth in the right,
or dominant lobe. Then, and only then — by God’s grace — can we hope
to return to those Principles which made our nation great!
End
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